What is to be done? This was the question asked by Lenin in 1901 when he
was having doubts about the revolutionary capabilities of the Russian
working class. 77 years later, Louis Althusser asked the same question.
Faced with the tidal wave of May '68 and the recurrent hostility of the
Communist Party towards the protests, he wanted to offer readers a
succinct guide for the revolution to come. Lively, brilliant and
engaged, this short text is wholly oriented towards one objective: to
organise the working class struggle. Althusser provides a sharp critique
of Antonio Gramsci's writings and of Eurocommunism, which seduced
various Marxists at the time. But this book is above all the opportunity
for Althusser to state what he had not succeeded in articulating
elsewhere: what concrete conditions would need to be satisfied before
the revolution could take place. Left unfinished, it is published here
in English for the first time.